How Unified Leadership Across The City Is Transforming Topeka | Molly Howey

What The Partnership Includes

We formed the Greater Topeka Partnership. That consists of Go Topeka, Visit Topeka, the Chamber of Commerce, and downtown Topeka.

Feels like we got a lot going for us right now. What are some of the big things to East D has We're the capital city?

Yeah, yeah. We need to really embrace that and celebrate that.

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Whether you're buying or renting, Topeka and Shawnee County are ready to welcome you. Apply now at ChooseTopeka.com. All right, we've got Molly Howie in the studio with us. You're the CEO of the Greater Topeka Partnership. Welcome to the studio.

Thanks for having me.

Man, thanks so much. So could you just give us a quick rundown? What exactly is the Greater Topeka Partnership? What do they do for Topeka? Sure.

Yeah. So every community is unique, right? They every community usually has a Chamber of Commerce, maybe a downtown organization, something to do with tourism, economic development. And Topeka has always had those organizations, but about eight or ten years ago, we decided that we would be better if we were all together. And so we formed a Greater Topeka Partnership. And that consists of Go Topeka Economic Development, Visit Topeka Tourism, the Chamber of Commerce, which is a little different here in Topeka because it is mostly focused on government affairs and lobbying and advocacy. And then downtown Topeka. So we've got all separate actual entities housed together and sharing kind of our back office operations of marketing, communications, finance, and admin. And we're all working under the same strategic plan. So that's great because we're all rowing in the same direction and able to share a lot of assets. And it's really worked well so far. And there's a lot of models across the country that are have been separate and are looking at how to join forces like we have. Whoa.

Why Unifying Groups Works

What are the benefits of being a combined unified force?

From Visitor To Resident To Founder

Well, I mean, some are really obvious, right? So we all used to be in different office spaces. Now we're all in the same office, so we can just walk down the hall and having a conversation and that water cooler talk, if you will. Um the the organic discussions are much more frequent than they would have been when we were all separate. Um but then obviously, uh, you know, since we share that staff, we've got the same marketing team working on um collateral for a visitor as would be working on collateral for a business coming to town. And so we can share actual physical digital assets and and labor and things like that. So that's really helpful. And then just the unified message and strategy and knowing that we're all part of this ecosystem, and a visitor could become someone that's a resident, and um a visitor could become someone that starts a new business. I just talked to one of my coworkers about that today that there was actually um a family that moved here from our choose to pick a campaign that is from Venezuela, and they had seen advertisements on Telemundo. What? Came here, side on scene. Come on. Um started to uh a restaurant and I think a nail salon. And so just you know, Telemundo. Yeah. It's it's the whole it's the whole ecosystem working together, speaking the same language.

Did you say Venezuela? Yeah. I just saw something today about probably their restaurant, a new Venezuelan restaurant that we did on uh 29th Street?

Yes. Yep, yep, that's it.

Oh, that is super cool. Yeah.

Have you ever had I have. I hope they serve some arepas.

They do. Bob just told me about those.

Okay. Oh yeah, bro. Yeah, I had a Venezuelan roommate and uh he cooked us some homemade arepas and they were nice. Fuego.

That's right. Talk to us a little bit about uh for those who maybe don't live here or I don't even want to say heads in the sand, but that maybe just aren't as plugged into Topeka. What's happening in Topeka right now? I mean, we I feel like every time I hop onto Facebook, there's a new development. Washburn's doing something, there's a new restaurant going in downtown. It feels like we got a lot going for us right now. What are some of the big things that you see happening right now?

Housing Surge And Market Gaps

Gosh, there is a ton. It's really hard to choose, right? Because I could probably answer that question for the next 10 minutes.

Yeah.

Um Please do. There's a lot in in regards to housing. So on both ends of the spectrum, affordable housing, um, higher-end executive housing, multifamily housing, single family housing. We still are one of the top housing markets, which is a good thing, but also um from a demand perspective, people want to live here, but we've got to catch up with our supply. So knowing that we've got 500 units going in and downtown, um we I think the study that was done a few years back said we needed 900, so we're getting there. Um but it's really exciting to just see the diversity in the types of offerings that we have, and also um geographic diversity is getting better too. So um uh I gosh, housing, there's there's some projects going on the east side, there's always something going on west, southwest. Um and you know, I think that um that's something that that Topekans haven't seen in a long time. So it's kind of a shot in the arm for for um the the feel-good part for residents. And also as we try to attract new companies and new residents to come here, they need to see themselves living in a in a type of environment that they want to live in, whether that's a downtown loft or um you know, a house on some acreage right outside of town.

Yeah. It's amazing. Okay, the downtown lofts that are going in, that was just kind of that was just announced within the last you know, a couple days. When this will be released, probably the last couple weeks. But yeah. Tell us a little bit about that. What's going down there? I saw there was a uh it's downtown apartments. Right. There's some amenities that are going in there as well.

Sure. So that's a project that's been in the works for about six years. Whoa.

Six years?

Yeah. Um and it's very rooted in relationships. So a lot of the work we do is, you know, and um when you're a mid-sized city, sometimes you get overlooked when when um developers are looking at certain numbers and thresholds they need to meet. So relationships are really key for us because instead of just looking at the data, it's like, well, somebody knows someone that knows someone that may have a connection to a developer that maybe wouldn't have looked at Topeka but for this relationship they have.

Interesting.

So that happens to be um kind of the situation with that project. Forever we have called it Project View. Project View. It didn't have a name until it was announced this week. So the developers are um Flaherty and Collins, they're out of Indianapolis, and um they have really stayed right alongside us for longer than most developers would. I mean, six years is a long time for a multifamily housing complex to come to um the the agreement point that we're at right now. So um it will really be market rate and it will be, I think, four stories. They've got a lot of amenities that you would see in newer modern um complexes with a dog spa and a dog bar and um you know a heated pool and fire pits and grilling stations and all, you know, the whole works and um to go hang out there. Yeah, well, there's a rooftop lounge. I don't know how you get onto that rooftop lounge, but that that will be part of it with a great view of the Capitol. So yeah, downtown on um Sixth Street between Van Buren and Jackson. So the entrance, I think, will be right at Six and Van Buren.

Um Yeah, so right next to everything.

Oh yeah. Yeah.

I feel like those those restaurants there are gonna be so pumped. Yeah. I mean, that's huge for foot traffic. You know, you want a quick bite to eat instead of having to drive maybe 20 minutes downtown to go get a burger at the pennant. It's like, hey, we could just walk. Or it's right there.

Is that the street the white linen is on?

Yes.

Okay, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It'll kind of just be a block west of the white linen on the opposite side of the street.

Amazing. Super cool. Yeah. So that's that's gonna be great. You have been the CEO now for six months?

About, yeah. Six months.

Amenities, Location, And Local Impact

Okay. Give us a little bit of a run. But you had worked at uh the partnership for how many years before that? Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.

So I was president of Go Topeka prior to becoming CEO of the Greater Topeka Partnership. So I was on the economic development side, and I had been um with Go Topeka for well, this summer it'll be 15 years of the organization.

Okay, so what what has it been like you're a part of the organization? Obviously, even a really big part of the organization is the president of one of the sections of the partnership. Now you're the CEO. What has changed about your perspective of the city, about what's going on in the city since taking on this new role?

Stepping Into The CEO Role

Well, I would back up a little bit because economic development changed a lot in the 14 years that I that I was with Go Topeka prior to taking this current role and became much more holistic. So when I started, it was very much capital investment, jobs, wages, you know, all numbers based. Right. And even the site selection criteria back then, when it when a company would look at where they were gonna locate, it was all very much around that. That's still a big piece of decision making. But um in the past probably eight to ten years, everything has become much more holistic and much more focused on the the whole community, the the all of the amenities that are there, because to have a workforce, you've got to have a cool place to live.

Right.

So I had started looking at things differently um when the the vertical I was in of economic development started to change.

Vertical.

But um, yeah, I think I used that word last time.

I think maybe I asked you about that. Yeah. What's a vertical? Yeah, section. You yeah.

Um uh but yeah, in the CEO role, you look at things a lot differently. Of course, you know, a piece of that that I didn't have to focus on as much in the past was my team is a lot larger. The my the you know, I I was leading um a section of of GTP, and now all of those folks that were just my coworkers before, I'm I'm much more ingrained with them. So, you know, having about 35-ish employees on a team, I didn't really interface with as much of them as frequently. So that piece is just kind of a technical in the weeds weeds part of it. But um, it's fun because you get a lot more celebrations, you know. Economic development can be really slow.

Yeah.

And you get a lot of no's and very few yeses.

Yeah.

And being part of the whole team um and being in the role that I'm in now, I get to see a lot more of those celebrations throughout the whole partnership than I did before. Because I was just heads down, you know, working on on our um individual focus. And now it's like, gosh, I get every every you know, every time I turn around, somebody's got something fun and exciting to talk about. And so that's really energizing and um something that I think I I didn't think about. I didn't it was a surprise and a good surprise. Yeah.

Rethinking Economic Development

So that's a great point because that makes me think of a large percentage of the city of Topeka has a very negative view of the city of Topeka and might say things like, nothing good will ever happen here, there's nothing to do here, why would you move here? You know, things like that. Um in fact, I moved here uh five or six years ago. And some of some people, when I first met him, I told them I moved here, they're like, Why did you move here? And I'm like, what do you mean? Like this place is awesome. Like, and uh, we've never regretted it. We love being here.

And now you're hosting a Topeka podcast. Our home.

Hosting uh the cheerleader podcast, just hyping up the city uh because we love it. But but to maybe folks who have a paradigm like that, what are some wins? Like, what are some things you're just excited about? You look over at the the scope of the city and you think, man, Topeka's really winning with this, with this, with this. What are some things just in your role that you get to see?

Yeah. Um so I think we've made great strides, and there's still a lot of opportunity in all these things that I'm gonna mention. So we have not we have not made it to you know the pinnacle and we're done with any of these things. And I don't think we ever will be. So that's one thing is that we're never gonna have that complex that we don't need to be any better. Now we don't need to be another community. We need to be the best Topeka we can be. Right. Um, but I think that that Midwest work ethic and um really also shines through in our our leaders and our stakeholders in the community saying, well, that that was great, but how can we make it better? So I give that caveat just because um there are a lot of wins that are that are early wins that are still we can still build on. One being um, you know, we still need more housing. So, but there's been a lot of great wins in housing. We've got the affordable housing on the other side of downtown in um to uh to anchor the south side. Uh and then you know, the airport has had some recent wins. I don't know if you've seen it earlier. Yeah, they've got a um a hangar that will be under construction here pretty soon.

Yeah, they announce which uh airline is coming.

Wins, Realism, And Civic Pride

Well, okay, so there's two things on the on the airport. What has has more traction right now and had the the positive announcement within the last week is more on the economic development side. It is um a construction of a new hangar that would be positioned to add new jobs and a new company to come in. And the the type of company they're targeting is called MRO maintenance, repair, and overhaul. Yes. So um we are we have a a lot of really unique assets in our airfield at Forbes Field with space, um, unencumbered airspace and uh just a new huge runway that can land literally anything. Um longest runway in the state.

And so in the state.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um and but we haven't had any hangers to attract the companies that need those things. Right. They need a they need a building. And that industry is really um they they roll out the red carpet for aviation aerospace industry. So they're used to coming in and saying, I want this and I want that, and if you don't have it, then they're gonna pass you up. So us having a space really gives me hope for more development there and an industry that we haven't had much in. You know, we don't have we don't have many companies that are aviation aerospace related. We have a few. Um but so just continuing to diversify the offerings that we have from from the economic perspective and just different types of industries insulates us from all kinds of economic downturn. And and it's just cool because it will attract a different type of skill set um and give us an opportunity to grow there. So that's one thing that I think we have going for us with an opportunity at the airport. Um I think the downtown is um has seen some great wins, but I honestly believe that we are at a plateau right now that the projects that are I mentioned, the housing projects are gonna help us reach that next level.

Come on.

Airport Bet On MRO Jobs

So I think there's real excitement that's that's going to come from those new housing developments in downtown. There's much more um to be done down there. There's a lot of um potential in those historic buildings that uh we're seeing some interest from outside developers that are coming in. And to your point about cost of real estate, we're seeing um investors and developers that are coming into the market saying, wait, how much did you miss? Did you miss a zero on the cost of that? I mean, that's crazy. So um I just saw one at lunch actually that's here in town for a couple days from the Denver area that is really interested in some opportunities for redevelopment of our historic buildings and the capital district, because we're the capital city.

Yeah, yeah.

We need to really um embrace that and celebrate that. So um that's great. Recreation, um, youth sports specifically. I think we've we've done a lot there and we have a lot of concerted effort and strategy that is ready to be deployed. And and um I think there's some some great opportunities on the horizon for actual physical developments around youth sports. We are a big sports town, and I think every family's got a kid that they're shipping off or driving to, you know, um somewhere else in the region. And for us to continue to develop that here and keep um at a quality of life asset for families, um, but then also keep the dollars here and be able to compete for tournaments and things that are maybe landing in in other parts of our region.

I think we hear a lot of stories about like two Topeka teams driving to Kansas City to play each other and then drive back home. Wow, surely we could have done this in Topeka, right? Yeah, but yeah. Yeah, that would be amazing. Yeah, it's the youth sports, uh, continues to increase. I heard Sunflowers, uh building some big updates to Yeah, they just got lights, which is really cool.

Yeah, it may seem basic, but that allows for more games.

Yeah, tournaments, yeah, stuff like that. It's awesome. Well, switching gears, let's talk a little bit about Washburn University and what Washburn's, I guess they're growing like a weed. Oh my gosh, it feels like every other day we were just talking to Brett that there's something new going up. Yep. Talk a little bit about Washburn's impact on Topeka and what they're doing. Yeah. Hey, quick heads up. If you've been thinking about relocating, Topeka might actually pay you to move here.

Seriously, you could get up to $15,000 to live and work in Shawnee County. Check it out at chooseTopeka.com. Now back to the show.

Downtown Plateau And Next Level

So I'm a Washburn alum, so I may be a bit a bit biased with go bots. Um much different than when I went to school there. I remember they were just building like the first new dorms when I was there. And so now to know they're like bursting at the seams for housing, um, record enrollments is just it's just awesome. They didn't have the track and field team or track and uh yeah, track field and cross country teams when I was there. So that's that's really great. Yeah, our indoor facility um is just second to none. So um, but yeah, all of the I think there's not many buildings left on the campus that haven't been redeveloped or just reconstructed. They're running in a ground space. I know.

It's amazing.

And they're expanding too like beyond the yeah, with and with Washburn Tech, Washburn Tech East, Washburn Tech North now. Um, just again, back to that variety and diversity of offerings because you know, maybe there's somebody that wants to get a welding certificate, and then maybe there's somebody that wants to, you know, be a nurse or an attorney. We've got it all at Washburn and Washburn. Yeah.

Uh so I graduated from Washburn in 20, the December of 20. And so I feel like I just got out of there, you know, five or so years ago. And it's completely changed since I've got there. You know, I spent all my time in the business hall, and now advisors excel's coming in and they're redoing the business building. I mean, they're waiting, they waited for me to leave to do all good stuff. I know.

That's how I felt at KU too. Yeah. Graduated, and then it's like, where'd this brand new engineering complex come from? Like, you couldn't have had that a few years ago.

I think that's kind of how I felt when I moved out of my parents' house too. I'm like, now you guys have a trampoline for the grandkids, and we couldn't have that because someone was gonna break an arm. Now it's my insurance is gonna pay work. Yeah, but okay, yeah.

Youth Sports As Growth Engine

I lived, my wife and I lived in this rental one time in our first year of marriage, and it was a dump. And we talked to the landlord, and we're like, hey, we would be willing to like work out a deal with you to like fix up the house and like you know, work out a deal. Yeah. And they're like, nah, nah. And then literally a month after we moved out, whole thing's fully renovated. I was like, dude. Oh my god, like we would have helped you do this, and then we could experience it ourselves. Yeah. It's wild. Yeah.

No, but Washburn is just a jewel in our community. And it I think we that's another thing that we need to keep beating our chests about. And sometimes we're a little humble about the cool things that we have going on.

Yeah.

Um, but it wasn't always that that way. I mean, it had been gosh, forgotten's probably a strong word, but there's I when I was in school there, I don't think that Washburn had the street cred or the respect that it has now. It's just so much different. And just to eat, you know, the sports teams really help. That's fun. It's fun to go to absolutely any athletic event over there. So true. Dr. Massachek is just has a great vision for immersing in the community and then creating that mutual, um, that mutual, I guess, um, promotion of one another, right? So I think we we need to continue to do our part as a community to be proud that you know we're not Lawrence as a college town, but we're a different kind of college town. And um that's not the only thing we have going for us. We have really strong corporate partners to balance out that too.

Washburn’s Expansion And Reach

So, what was the name? I'm drawing a blank. Uh, the Washburn professor we had on who has the run club. Paul Wagner. Paul Wagner, we had Paul Wagner on, he's a professor at Washburn. He said it best. We're awesome. He said, Washburn University, we're awesome now. He said back in the day when he first was a professor there 25-ish years ago, they had 3,000 ish students enrolled and it was a commuter school.

Uh-huh.

We're awesome now. He says six, seven thousand students living on campus, all these new developments going up. Uh and what especially the uh the track indoor track and field, I've just heard from not only is that great for student athletes to use, but you know, we get to host those events now. And so everyone's coming to Topeka. Um, all the schools in Division II are traveling to us to have those indoor meets, which is super cool.

Didn't someone tell us that like when they were first starting to get the idea to build it, the only place nearby that had something similar was like a an NFL team. Oh, really? Yeah. I'm pretty sure someone from the university told me that. That like there's like no one else has something quite like that. Yeah, I don't know. Like, yeah, some NFL team they they said expecting.

We don't know if that's true or not, but we're gonna roll with it.

Yeah, it is now published on this episode. So yeah. Um what is it, what is the dynamic of Washburn as like a city university as compared to you know, K UK State or state universities? I've heard that that's pretty rare. It is um but I've heard it's a really um a really positive dynamic that we should be really excited about. Can you help us understand what that means?

City-University Synergy

Well, I won't go into the detail. That I am not for sure about, but what I do know firsthand is it creates a much tighter relationship and much more responsiveness to what our community's needs are. So when we're having a conversation, I mean, let's go back to aviation aerospace, for example. Um, we can have a conversation with Washburn Leadership about the opportunities that we have in certain areas and the need for the skills and education around those. And that's part of their criteria when they're choosing what new offerings to have, right? They want to know what the community needs. Oh, so they can go, hey, we're gonna offer an aviation program because it's that easy, but it's it's easier and much more um But it's more of a dynamic, responsive conversation than Yeah. And it's much more a part of their strategy too. It's not just because we have a closer relationship with them, it's because that's a part of Washburn's mission is to be there for the community and you know, a great community partner. So um I feel like we we probably get more um of what the community needs than maybe some other college towns do that are much more focused on a a larger region. Yeah. So yeah. That's awesome. And Washburn understands that when the community grows, that's an opp opportunity for the university to grow, too.

Yeah. So that's so good.

Yeah.

That's awesome. Cool.

Well, we're gonna switch to some rapid fire.

Exactly. You read my mind. Okay, so uh you are now our second guest to return. Our first guest returned was yesterday, Brett Ballard. Yeah. Uh so as if you're watching this live, you know, these are not the same day we recorded this, but uh you've answered these questions. Now you get we get to just update people.

You get to have a good shot at the yeah, but you gave me those questions and I I thought about them for so long. I didn't think about the rest of the interview, but like, oh gosh, who did I choose as my favorite? Yeah.

Yeah. So uh we at the end of all of our episodes with any of our guests, we like to do rapid fire, which are specific uh preferences and favorites of different things around the city of Topeka. I feel like honestly, we should ask people in the YouTube comments for updated rapid fire questions. We should. Maybe people could like vote on new rapid fire questions we we add each time. Yeah, yeah.

Try to give me some safe ones that I actually can answer. True.

Oh, yeah, it is difficult as like a city leader because you're like working with a lot of these businesses. So uh, you know, we'll just we'll just see what happens. Okay. All right, so Molly Howie. Uh as a citizen, not as the CEO. As just a normal person who lives in the city to peek.

If you're gonna go tonight.

Yeah.

Okay.

Favorite local restaurant.

I don't know, guys. I don't know if I can I don't know. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do that.

If you had to go somewhere tonight, where would you go?

If I had well, I know where I am going tonight.

Where are you going tonight?

Um so I have daughters and nieces in their twenties, and um our our significant others are playing poker tonight. So we are all going to trivia at Tailgators.

No, okay. That's a great answer. That is a great answer. I love it.

So that just happens to be what I'm doing this evening. Absolutely.

Rapid Fire: Local Favorites

Yeah, yeah. Just coincidentally, has nothing to do with your role as a CEO of Okay, so um do you have like a go-to date night in Topeka?

Yeah, um, I think you guys asked me this last time, and my date night, mmm, this is hard because my husband and I were just sitting there last night on the couch trying to figure out what we're gonna do for Valentine's Day. I don't want to put that all on him, right? That's a that that needs to be a man and a woman thing. That's right. Yeah, yeah. So um so a date night, I just always like to do something that is different that's not happening all the time.

Yeah, right.

So if there's something new that's going on, like um coming up, I'm really excited about rock orchestra that they're gonna have a tea pack in May, I think, or something. Um so anytime there's something that isn't a recurring happening, I want to I want to do that. I like to do the the other things too, and there's staples and things, but for what I would consider a date night, I'm just looking to see what's going on that you couldn't do in sure night.

Events, concerts, things like that. Yeah, that's a great answer.

Are you a coffee girl?

Yeah.

Uh if you're gonna grab coffee, you got a place you go?

Yeah, I answered this last time. And um, you know what I'm gonna say this time? Self-serving. Um, where I'm going right now is um a place called Sparrow Coffee. Yeah. It has just opened in our own Link Innovation Center on Sixth Street downtown. Like I think they opened to the public on Monday. So I will spin that answer to where I plan to get coffee next time I get coffee is there.

Yeah, love it. Yeah. Directing people to a new business that has been brought to Top. Have you been to the higher grounds coffee shop from Bullet?

Yeah, that's such an awesome shop. Oh, it is good. It's Topeka. Topeka Boulevard, yeah. It's kind of out of my way, so I don't go very often. But I went once and gosh, that's a great little shop. Dude, I go there all the time. It's nice.

That's why it's hard to pick your favorite, because there's too many. So if you ask me where I'm going next, then next time you ask me, it's gonna be a different one. Yeah.

Uh speaking of Valentine's Day, Thursday Club, do you see they have a little Valentine's Day special? I didn't, but I'm excited now. Yeah look at it. Where's the golfer? You like to golf? Yep. Uh if you're gonna go play nine holes somewhere, where are you going?

Developers, Unity, And What’s Next

Yeah, nine holes in this last hole. Or eighteen.

If you're gonna go play three holes somewhere, three holes and quit.

Yeah. Um, okay, I'm gonna answer the same way in that where I'm planning to golf next, because if you looked at the forecast, I mean it's feeling like spring out there.

So um seven degrees on Monday.

Yeah. So tomorrow um afternoon, my husband and I and my sister and brother-in-law are going to go golf at Cyprus.

Nice. These are the most convenient questions. You're doing all the things we're asking you about like this weekend. Love it. Yeah. That's crazy. What else are you doing this weekend that we can ask you about?

Huh. What am I doing?

Probably just making, you know, million-dollar deals with companies moving to Speaker. $50 million investments into apartments. I love it.

No, tomorrow, um, without saying too much, uh, Bob and I are walking through uh potential redevelopment in downtown with the um interested developer from Denver. So we're gonna walk through and see what his plans envision. Wow.

Yeah, six months into the job, she's already got new apartments coming in. Look at her.

Ooh, that was a long time coming. I have been a part of it a long time, but there's been a large team. I mean, that's the other thing, is that we we frequently hear from outside investors and outside developers and people looking at community. They are so amazed at the unity and the collaboration that we have, and that it just makes things easier. They know that once they once they touch that web, that we're gonna make sure that they get connected to whatever else they need to get connected to.

Where To Plug Into GTP

So, one of my favorite things to do when I'm driving around the city is you know, you'll see uh an abandoned building every now and then, and you know, you know, could have been all kinds of different things, a warehouse or whatever. And it's just really fun to imagine like, okay, if I had five million dollars and I was gonna just like, what would I do with that? I gotta imagine maybe you have similar uh habits of seeing like what could be do you have like a certain building or district or area that you'd be like, man, if you could wave. If someone turned that around, that would be amazing.

Again, I I don't know that I want to pick a favorite there. Um I will defer to say that there is still a lot of really cool space in downtown.

Yeah. Yeah.

Really cool space.

So true. Yeah.

With just a built-in foot traffic from all of the state agencies and all the other corporate um partners that are located down there and then now residents.

Love it. Last question, where can people find you at? Uh if they want to get plugged into the partnership, if they have a question about choose to Pika or anything the partnership's doing, where can they get connected?

Yeah, so I mean we're pretty active on social, um, mostly on mostly on Facebook and uh getting better on Instagram with Visit to Pika because there's some great imagery that we can really push out there. But I would say Facebook is the best place to see what's going on with the GTP. We are going through um a logo redesign and a rebrand, and we'll be doing a new website. So um keep an eye for that.

So you can start doing like TikTok dances and stuff.

No, no, no, someone on our team may, but it's not gonna be me.

Yeah, yeah, cool. Molly, thanks so much so much for joining us. It's been awesome.

Thank you. It has been fun. Thanks.